Frank Rich Really Liked Up in the Air

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In his Op-Ed today in the New York Times, columnist Frank Rich says that Jason Reitman’s George Clooney-starring drama Up in the Air can do more to fix our country’s economic wounds than anyone is doing in Washington right now. Rich lays out his case (while not spoiling the movie, it must be pointedout):

“Here is an America whose battered inhabitants realize that the economic deck is stacked against them, gamed by distant, powerful figures they can’t see or know. “Up in the Air” may be a glossy production sprinkled with laughter and sex, but it captures the distinctive topography of our Great Recession as vividly as a far more dour Hollywood product of 70 years ago, “The Grapes of Wrath,” did the vastly different landscape of the Great Depression.”

Rich goes on to argue that “[Up in the Air] makes palpable the cultural and even physical chasm that opened up between the two Americas for years before the financial collapse.” Having seen the movie, this argument isn’t all that far-fetched, actually. Up in the Air opens wide on Christmas Day, and will at least do more to heal our country than, say, its weekend-box-office competitor It’sComplicated.

Rich goes on to argue that “[Up in the Air] makes palpable the cultural and even physical chasm that opened up between the two Americas for years before the financial collapse.” Having seen the movie, this argument isn’t all that far-fetched, actually. Up in the Air opens wide on Christmas Day, and will at least do more to heal our country than, say, its weekend-box-office competitor It’sComplicated.